Video: To survive an attacker, either run, hide or fight

Updated 8:17 pm, Friday, July 27, 2012

It may feel like another day at the office, the authoritative voice announces in the video, but life sometimes can feel more like an action movie than reality.

So begins the narration in the instructional video that just might save your life - if a crazed gunman ever opened fire at your workplace.

After last week's mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., the city of Houston released a short video depicting a fictional shooting incident at an office building, the most likely locale for a mass shooting.

The film crew wrapped up the project two weeks before the July 20 shooting that left 12 dead and dozens of others injured during a midnight showing of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises," said Dennis J. Storemski, who heads the city department.

"We didn't release it at the time because we didn't know it was relevant. Now it is," he said, referring to the Colorado tragedy.

The gunman, James Holmes, likely will face a dozen first-degree murder charges, according to a court document citing prosecutors. First-degree murder can be punishable by death in Colorado.

The key to survive such a live-or-die scenario is mirrored in the video's title: run, hide and fight. The video may be viewed online at www.readyhoustontx.gov.

The lifesaving tips include:

1 Run if a safe path is available. Always try to escape or evacuate even if others insist on staying.

1 If you can't get out safely, find a place to hide.

1 When hiding, turn out lights, remember to lock doors and silence your ringer and vibration mode on your cellphone.

1 As a last resort, working together or alone, act with aggression, use improvised weapons and fight.

"That means anything you can put together to try to disarm the attacker," Storemski said. "Whatever you can find, whether it be a hard object or a pointed object, can be thrown at him. It's even better if multiple people are available to do that, working in tandem against the attacker."

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Houston Mayor Annise Parker said knowledge is power in a situation such as Aurora.

"I can't imagine the horror and grief," the mayor said in a press release. "If it is at all possible for any good to come out of it, perhaps it can be letting people know the options to consider if it happens again."